BRATISLAVA, January 25, (WEBNOVINY) — Slovakia may be penalized by the European Union over late transposition of Third Energy Package. After parliamentary committees failed to support revisions of energy laws that shall transpose the Third Energy Package into the Slovak legal system, MPs may fail to pass them before the early parliamentary elections in Match although the Parliament is slated to debate the materials in the second reading at its last regular session before the elections. As the Economy Ministry elucidated, the Parliamentary Economy Committee failed to debate the draft amendments because many of its members did not appear at the session and subsequently the Parliamentary Committee for Constitutional and Legal Affairs did not support them, either.
The ministry was in particular surprised by the position of MPs from the SDKU-DS, which is the leader of the collapsed governing coalition. “The attitude of SDKU is an unpleasant surprise for me because SDKU supported these draft bills in the first reading. This party raised no fundamental remarks in debates that preceded the submission of the drafts,” State Secretary at the Economy Ministry Kristian Takac (SaS) stated. Economy Minister Juraj Miskov (SaS) said that the attitude of the party was irresponsible and incomprehensible.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Economy Committee, Stanislav Janis (SKDU-DS), said that the revisions to the laws on energy sector and regulation in network industries were penned in haste and MPs should amend them in the second reading. Otherwise they should not be passed.
The Regulatory Office for Network Industries (URSO) has warned against the adoption of the drafts in question. The watchdog argues that they were drafted under the influence of lobbyists from the business sphere and that they favor monopoly energy suppliers but not customers.
SITA